It's not very clear how importing Bollywood culture into Saifai will 'promote local culture'. Salman Khan (left) meeting UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav

When you are scraping the bottom of the barrel, there is only one way out.

You go back up; the turnaround has to happen; it's the only option left.

UP still had some way to go (downhill that is), and it has been doing so with resolute single mindedness.

After what happened at the Saifai festival in Mulayam Singh Yadav's backyard, the question that needs to be asked is:

Is this finally it?

Can it get any worse?

I don't think it can.

And in that might lie a silver lining.

Depressing

UP has been on a downward spiral for years. I grew up in Allahabad in the 1980s and 90s. I have been witness to its decline right from my schooldays.

The goon/goonda culture that prevailed in the state had percolated down to the classroom.

Guns and gangs were what schoolboys looked up to. It was what kids aspired to.

Along with this was the sense that we were different, that what worked in the rest of the country didn't work here. It was a depressingly proud provincialism, and remains so - a sort of 'We are like this only' state of being.

After what happened at the Saifai festival in Mulayam Singh Yadav's backyard, the question that needs to be asked is: Is this finally it? Can it get any worse?

There is this redneck mentality; Around here, we do things our way, and we don't like being told how to lead our lives.

This was evident in the aftermath of the Saifai controversy.

Ministers walked out of TV debates, refusing to answer questions.

One UP minister said 'People in Delhi' didn't understand 'UP culture'. What happened was despicable.

This is a state that has recently witnessed bloody riots.

15,000 victims are still sheltered in relief camps.

Children have died in the cold.

And down the road, the biggest film stars from Bollywood are shaking a leg for easy money.

Mulayam's flunkies have of course brazenly justified spending crores on flying actors and actresses down by saying the festival is supposed to 'promote local culture'.

It's not very clear how importing Bollywood culture into Saifai will achieve this.

Does this really enrich local handicrafts, for example? There is also the tackiness of it.

Sting

His government is accused of arbitrarily arresting and torturing political dissidents. Kanye West raked in $3 million to perform at the wedding of controversial Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev's grandson.

He and his wife then spent $750,000 on four gold-plated bathrooms. In 2011, Sting turned down a similar offer from the same president.

He said, "Hunger strikes, imprisoned workers and tens of thousands on strike represents a virtual picket line which I have no intention of crossing… The Kazakh gas and oil workers and their families need our support and the spotlight of the international media on their situation in the hope of bringing about positive change."